The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the road to an all-electric-vehicle future may still be a decade or more away, but the move away from gas-powered cars is already imperilling the humble gas station. The Globe's Jameson Berkow writes that companies hoping to sell large retail gas networks are struggling to find buyers. Hundreds of locations across Canada from big-name companies such as Suncor, Irving and Parkland are up for sale with no one so much as kicking the tires. As no-emission mandates advance around the world, there are predictions that 80 per cent of the global fuel retail network as it exists today will be unprofitable roughly a decade from now. Suncor faced that reality in 2022, when it failed to find an acceptable price for its Petro-Canada network, deciding to keep the chain. Irving Oil has had its nearly 1,000 refuelling stations across the East Coast on the auction block for almost a year. Recently, Parkland has brought in some big guns to assist with selling 157 gas stations spread across six provinces. Their challenge, as Suncor and Irving have already learned, will be finding a buyer who sees a long-term strategic rationale in owning services designed for a technology in decline.
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